Paul A. Reid, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
ALL PLAYERS in this season's schoolboys football competitions, the rural daCosta Cup and Corporate Area Manning Cup, must have identification cards issued by the organisers, the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), or they will not be allowed to participate.
"If you forget your ID, then tough luck, you just cant play," said George Forbes, competitions committee chairman of ISSA, at last week's annual planning meeting of the daCosta Cup competition held at Manchester High in Mandeville.
CLAMPDOWN ON ILLEGAL PLAYERS
Forbes said the organisers were trying to stamp out the practice of coaches using ineligible players in schoolboy competitions.
It is unfortunate, Forbes said, that the ISSA could not vouch for the honesty of the coaches, several who wanted to "win at all costs".
He warned that five or so years down the track, after leaving school, the players would not have any respect for the coaches who in effect would have taught them to how to cheat.
Outgoing chairman of ISSA's football committee, Elroy Ricketts, also commented that the organisation had had to deal with several incidents of "fabrication of grades, attendance records and dates of birth to make players eligible".
A number of coaches in attendance called for stiffer penalties to be imposed for anyone caught breaking the laws and also for the names of the schools and the coaches to be announced so everyone knew who the cheaters were.
TIME FOR ACTION
Andrew Edwards, coach of Titchfield High, said he was tired of hearing the same things every meeting and it was time something serious was done.
Edwards suggested that any school caught breaking the laws should be thrown out and excluded from taking part in any competition the following year.
Ricketts also said, "All matches, regardless of where the competition is at and how it will affect teams, must be played".
He was responding to allegations that a number of times, referees refused to turn up for games that were of academic interest only and attended others games to watch the other schools play.
Aches were urged to report the incidents of referees not turning up for games to the relevant confederation bodies or to the Jamaica Football Federation Referees Commission.
